Commemorative bell #9801 for Prague cast in Austria, to be placed on Rohan Island

13 June 2022
Innsbruck / Prague

A new bell weighing 9,801 kilograms will be installed on Rohan Island, where Sekyra Group is transforming a neglected area into a modern Prague district called Rohan City. After several months of preparation, the bell has been cast at the Grassmayr bell foundry in Innsbruck. Bell #9801 and the eponymous initiative commemorate the bells confiscated during the Second World War. The bells were taken from a part of Rohan Island known as the bell cemetery to war factories in Hamburg. The Rohan City project plans to build a park on this site, and the bell will thus become part of the public space.

“For me, Bell #9801 symbolises not only the stirring voice of freedom and spiritual community, but is also a cautionary anti-war memento in the Invalidovna neighbourhood in connection with the powerful story of the confiscation of Czech bells by the Nazis. It will be an authentic expression of the identity of the new Rohan City district, where we want to combine shared public space with a sense of home. In the context of the restored Vltava island and the emerging riverbank promenade, the bell will be the centrepiece of the genius loci of this space. It will be a symbol commemorating the horrors of war and the precious nature of living in peace, which we must cherish because it cannot be taken for granted,” said Luděk Sekyra, chairman of the Board of Directors of Sekyra Group and one of the major donors to the restoration of the bells. Two years ago, he donated a bell to Český Krumlov.

A place in the green heart of Prague

Bell #9801 will be donated to the City of Prague and symbolically placed on Rohan Island, where it will become an integral part of the public space. This is an area currently undergoing a major transformation. On a previously forgotten brownfield site in the vicinity of Prague’s historic centre, Sekyra Group is building a new green centre called Rohan City.

The company will build mainly residential, but also administrative and commercial space here. According to estimates, 11,000 people will live and work in the new district. The total investment costs of the project, which will significantly change the face of the metropolis, will reach 18 billion Czech crowns. The project will also include a kilometre-long riverside promenade designed for leisure and sports, which will be connected to a generously designed park that will rival Stromovka Park in size.
After its transformation, Rohan Island will boast a unique genius loci, not only thanks to its proximity to the river, extensive park and new leisure island, but also thanks to the nearby historic Invalidovna building, which was built in the 18^th century for war invalids. “The sad link between Invalidovna and the present day is the fact that war is once again raging only a few hundred kilometres from the Czech border. Bell #9801 will thus serve as a reminder of the danger of war and that history can unfortunately repeat itself,” Sekyra added.

Over 2,000 donors

The mighty bell will ring out over Prague this August, 80 years after the last ship carrying the confiscated bells sailed from Prague’s Maniny shipyard to Hamburg. To make this happen, a public fundraiser was launched and is already more than two-thirds full. “The Bell #9801 initiative has been fulfilling its mission for several months now. Not only through our work, but also through the joy of symbolically restoring the voices of the thousands of bells that disappeared from Czech and Moravian bell towers during the Second World War. I am particularly pleased that this idea has also appealed to the general public. The casting of a physical bell is good news for everyone. It is tangible proof that we are achieving our goal,” said Ondřej Boháč, chairman of the Sanctus Castulus association, which is behind the project.

The amount needed to successfully complete the project is now estimated at CZK 12 million. More than 2,000 individual donors have already contributed to the collection. Sekyra Group and Sekyra Foundation have recently supported the creation of this unique bell with a sum exceeding two million Czech crowns. More than half of the necessary funds have been raised thanks to a significant donation from J&T Real Estate. PPF Foundation, headed by board member Jana Tomas Sedláčková, has been a major partner of the project from the outset.

Austrian masters

The process of manufacturing bells is very lengthy and difficult. The preparatory work alone took two months, during which a ‘false’ bell was first created from clay and wax, a precise template of the future bell in real size. The culmination of the birth of a new bell is the few minutes of actual casting. Ten tonnes of molten bell at a temperature of over 1,000 °C flows from the melting furnace into a mould buried in the ground.

This crucial moment requires great skill and concentration on the part of the bell founders. During casting, the mould is subjected to enormous pressure. To prevent it from cracking, it must be tightly secured with steel hoops and weighed down with a hundred tonnes of earth. The bell metal, which is a specific type of bronze, is heated for several hours until it reaches the temperature required for a successful casting. The molten bell metal then flows into the bell mould buried in the ground until it overflows, ensuring that it completely fills the mould. The bell-making masters then fill the casting hole with charcoal, which helps it cool down.

The casting of Bell #9801 was entrusted to the oldest bell foundry in Austria – the Grassmayr workshop in Innsbruck. The bell was made by brothers Johannes and Peter Grassmayr, the fourteenth generation keeping the family tradition alive. The weight of 9,801 kilograms refers to the 9,801 bells confiscated by the Nazis from bell towers in Bohemia and Moravia. Bell #9801 is an extraordinary event, even for such a renowned workshop that casts hundreds of bells every year.

In terms of weight, it is the fifth-largest bell the family has ever made. The motif of the destroyed bells is also reflected in the bas-relief decoration designed by Prague bell ringers. On one side, the shell is symbolically composed of fragments of bells that were taken from Prague’s Maniny district in 1942. In this way, the designers Kryštof Čižinský and Jakub Kamínek combine the lost and the present into a new functional whole.

What’s next?

The production of Bell #9801 does not end with its casting. At the moment, it is being left to cool. The time needed depends on the size of the bell. For larger ones, it can be several weeks. After it is lifted out of the casting pit and the mould is broken, the surface is finished. The bell is wet-sandblasted with corundum and water to remove the “dirty” colour the bell acquires due to the slow cooling. Brass or steel brushes are used to scrub between the detailing. To protect them from pigeon droppings and acidic air, bells are now also covered with a layer of wax before hanging, which provides at least temporary protection.

The heart of the bell must also be manufactured. It is made of iron because that is slightly softer than the bell metal, which must not be damaged by the clapper when it strikes. The bell maker only sees the result of several months of work at the very end, when the bell is rung and they discover whether it has the expected tone.

It will then be accessible to the donors and everyone else who will be able to see it, hear its tone and experience its ringing. This will be an exceptional event, as the last time a bell of similar size was installed in Bohemia was almost five hundred years ago, when the Zikmund bell was cast for St Vitus Cathedral. The project initiators hope that Bell #9801 will inspire the return of other bells to towers and belfries that have been empty since the Second World War.

Bell #9801 in numbers

bottom diameter 258 cm
height without crown 187 cm
bell weight 9,801 kg
clapper weight approx. 300 kg
tone f0

Sanctus Castulus, z. s.
Transparent account: 9801198011 / 2010
www.9801.cz

Board / Initiators:

Ondřej Boháč, geographer, bell ringer (participating in the initiative out of personal interest as a bell ringer, not in his capacity as a director at IPR Prague)
Marek Vocel, producer
Radek Lunga, campaign manager
Josef Pleskot, architect
Jiří Padevět, writer
Janek Rubeš, documentary filmmaker
Kryštof Čižinský, bell ringer
Jan Lukačevič, space engineer, bell ringer
Štěpán Valenta, bell ringer
Tomáš Lapáček, political scientist, bell ringer
Leoš Válka, gallery owner
Jana Tomas Sedláčková, manager
Jan Mikulka, documentary filmmaker
Aleš Berný, journalist
Barbora Musilová, designer

Donors and partners:

PPF Foundation – It was possible to begin work on the challenging Bell #9801 project thanks to the support and active involvement of PPF Foundation.
J&T Real Estate – It was possible to move forward with the challenging Bell #9801 project thanks to J&T Real Estate and their financial support.
Sekyra Group – With the contribution of Sekyra Group, this unique project will only be completed, but the bell will also find its new symbolic home in the heart of Prague.